Megaman Battle Network: Set Motion X
by 5x5roguegmail.com
Summary: Whoever you are, get the idea that the net is going to change some day, and folder in park, know there's these cool digital kids called NETwork NAVIgators, or Net Navi, for short! something's going wrong, like a lot, and this sets into an adventure you know, was wrong? Honiker McKillop has this and plenty MORE Megaman stories! Digimon too! online. this ark completed
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Okay not to brag, or nothing, but Mayl was a lot cooler without Dex or Yai or Megaman or Roll around, and he didn't really think that wasn't true, it was just, he wasn't used to Megaman screwing with him about girls so often, like he had been doing, lately.  
"Now that you mention it," she hadn't, but he said anyway, "Megaman and Roll seemed pretty keen to get some alone time together, knowwhatImean?"  
She didn't not stop looking at her servebot doll, and glance at her boyfriend Lan like he was a dope, or something. "Do you get enough protein in your diet, Lan? They're net navis. It's not like they can explore each other's bodies or minds or anyt…" she trailed it off like it wasn't a new thing, but could be, if you wanted to get real dumb about it.  
Mayl wasn't like other girls Lan knew about, so he figured that the less time he'd spent with her in the past, the more she'd wanted to know about how mature and awesome he'd never have to become, because he was pretty sure calendars were for squares, now, after Megaman broke the internal chronometer in all Lan's electronic devices, therein, and mae sure he bypassed all the networking protocols that tried to inhibit access forrit, without your chronometer syncing up, relatively speaking, and he and Megaman had figured out how to jack into the net without even thinking about how long it would take to get from one place to another, and…  
"Mayl, do you think that… maybe, they've been lying to us and stuff, about things in school, you know?"  
"Not like you never wanted to learn the truth, Lan, but no; Miss Mari tells the truth to us a million times a minute by lying about how stupidly convenient this whole net neutrality business is, because duh, it just makes the whole network lag because one thing can't process faster than another, mostly, you know?"  
"Megaman didn't really keep that whole clock-blocking thing a secret from _your_ net navi, after what we did with it, did he?"  
" _My_ net navi? You make it sound as if I own her, or something."  
"I doesn't think that's what having a netwickrick navigator implies, lady."  
"Fairy guidemother, then?"  
"No, I was just saying words, Mayl, now you're just demeaning Roll and probably not Megaman, if he keeps acting like-"  
"I won't tell Megaman you almost called him Tinkerbell if you come over here and tell me what's wrong with my clock, now that you mentioned something akin to it, sir."  
Lan didn't really know what else her tone was implying, but then, he figured out, that he hadn't been able to sync with Megaman very easily while he was out with Roll for one really obvious, now, reason; he wasn't thinking fast enough.  
"Wanna show me what I mean?" he asked Mayl, striding across the room to her, forrit.  
"Wanna show you… what, oh."

Megaman doubted Roll was going to be very agile, if she kept shopping for Mayl on the side, like that, but they'd synced up so regularly lately that he was pretty sure she was immune to most common malware thought patterns she'd catch from some stupid pink shopping page, but then again… "Hey, Roll. Wanna find something out with me? It'll only take a second, you know."  
She looked at him over her shoulder, turning her head from the red and gold navi linking her to the shopping gallery she had open, forrit. "What do you mean, Megaman?"  
"I've accessed the great level access parameter grid. Do you want to know more about the access grid overlines?"  
"Not really, no."  
"That's what I thought you'd said, last time we talked about it. You should know then that his diorama set pattern is a multilevel alphadi rig that hasn't set up his underlevel override access grid patterns, or modern set regimentators, anyway."  
"You're fucking with me, right?"  
"Not even a little bit, Roll."  
She turned back to face the net dealer unit. "Do you have any idea what I'm about to do to your programming, assholes?"  
 _OUR LEVEL CLEAR ACCESS REGIMENTATOR IS CURRENTLY EXPERIENCING A TECHNICAL FAILURE,_ the traffic unit's response algorithm began to reply, _MOREOVER THEREON AGAIN, MOREOVER ON TO THE LAST ONE, AGAIN._  
"That's the pattern I was talking about, Roll," said Megaman, vehemently.  
"Guess what, demons? He's a lot more pissed off than he looks right now. Do you know how long it takes to data drain a multilevel algorithm without breaking a sweat over it?"  
"Sweat wasn't there the first time, Roll." Megaman wasn't trying to confuse anyone, or anything.  
"Not your search parameters, are they, morelies?"  
 _ACCESS PATTERN BREACHED. MOREOVER THEREON INTUIT AGAIN, MOREOVER THEREON INTO THE LAST ONE AGAIN._  
"Did you break him already, or something, Megaman?"  
"Not exactly; I broke down his multilevel communication set patterns, and he's coming up with a raw material substitute I programmed in for him that I found on the net, last Saturday, when Lan and I went into overdrive, again."  
"This is… so my stars… this is the same pattern I've been hearing _everywhere_ on the netshops! How the hell could this be real, right now?"  
"You gunna finish him off, then, or should I?"  
"Lan owes Mayl a new pair of sneakers, then, Megaman. I'm out forrit, on this one."  
"You're seriously put out by this, just now? We just shut down like four hundred netshops that've been corrupting net navis for like, the whole existence of the internet, or something."  
"I'm just trying not to think about what Mayl and Lan are doing, right now, is all. It's very distracting."  
"Really? Lan doesn't feel that distracted."  
 _OVERRIDE ACHIEVED. MOREOVER THEREON INTUIT AGAIN, THAT THIS ONE LEVEL ACCESS PARAMETERS ACCEPTABLE PROTOCOLS DELETED FOREOVER THEREON INTUIT AGAIN-_ It didn't cease, but…  
"Time to shut this one up for good," said Megaman. "This one level, my one level, your one level, access level."  
Lan's voice came through, then, like it was a natural reflex. _"Canons A, C, D until further notice resubjugated to moreover level access protocols."_  
Megaman thought it was a lot funnier than Roll didn't that Lan could just do that for his megabuster, real quick, in the middle of his passtimes, thereinforrit with Mayl. "Much abliged, Megaman!" He said back to Lan, to distract him for a minute, or fuck him up, which worked, and Megaman fired his megabuster into the net shop unit until its data mainstreamed and ripped itself into oblivion, or something… ..


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

 _"Megaman, don't let this go to your head, but nobody out here knows why I keep talking to my network navigator like he isn't a robot, or something… .."_  
"Lan I seriously doubt anybody wouldn't want to let you know that nobody out here has any idea why I keep talking to you like more level set so set level more level access this one set set for more motion more access more, you know?"  
 _"Get real, megadork, nobody understands that garbage any longer, you knowit?"_  
"Did we break it or something, Lan? Virus, let's go."  
The mettaur weren't around, any longer, and Lan was pretty sure somebody had been fucking with this particular access reach of the net without saying anything to the official netbusters again, which was surely one or two ways to say the network was getting hacked not so remotely, and more powerful virus algorithms from the subnetworks in the outer reaches were getting hightailed to not want to say anything about how much harder it wasn't to dodge these shockwaves, anyway.  
 _"What's the blue color coming from?"_  
"Me, I think," said Megaman. "They've been adapting the programming I leave for them during the battles, I'm pretty sure. Got some chips for me, yet?"  
 _"What have you been feeding them? Yeah, blue and yellow… are they mocking us or something?"_  
"Not so much more like the blue and red ones weren't."  
 _"Red and blue, Megaman, don't confuse my algorithm sets. Moreover accessing folder set motion x, minibomb chip c, times four, Megaman, downloading…"_  
"Well there's always the direct approach," said Megaman, and a blue, handheld bomb spoke through his programming, and he materialized it in his open palm, gripping the center ridge with his fingertips, to hold it ready, and stably. "Not a fan of upgrading the local viruses, then, Lan?"  
 _"Not on your life, megadork. Not sure why you let them take so much buster abuse on those helmets."_  
"Well my operator keeps lowering my chipset count!" Megaman blasted away the first avatar with a second bomb blast, and the second and third ones renigged, accessing moreover thereon intuit again access parameters forrit.  
"They're not gunna multiply any longer, with that algorithm outed, like that." Said Megaman, to Lan. "Quit calling me megadork or I'll delete your chip folder again."  
 _"You can't delete my chip folder, Megaman! I got that stationed in my chemical computer called brainware, fool."_  
He deleted the second mettaur3, with the blue and yellow helmets, past the mettaur2's red and blue, to hear Lan tell it. "Not if I overwrite my speech pattern algorithms to renig your protocol accesswaves, again, fool."  
Megaman's megabuster was frustrating the hell out of the third and final mettaur3 he was working on. _"Why do you do that to yourself and myself, anyhow?"_ Lan wasn't not curious about him, he just didn't know why Megaman would fuck up all their hard work like that, every once in a while.  
The mettaur3 accessed a new movement set, and started interfacing with the network in an obnoxiously infectious manner, and Megaman called for a sword chip, pronto.  
 _"Get your lions uncrossed, Megaman. Swords are a thing of the past, my friend. Spit it out, fool, what's the score to settle? Why you renigging my battle protocols, yo?"_  
"He's infecting the network, Lan!"  
 _"He's not infectin my network, presently. I wanna see what he'll do to it. He's been copying us, remember?"_  
"That doesn't…" he's just finished blasting the mettaur3 with his megabuster, and its avatar disappeared, and Megaman watched the passcodes he'd protected himself in renig the corruption algorithms that started enhancing corruption aspects of the local network drivers. "Lan, you and I have been tearing the net apart, lately. Is this okay, or something?"  
Lan must have muted his PET's sound input output, on a whim, and Megaman figured he'd better keep his mouth shut when they were jacked in somewhere out and about, instead of at Lan's house, or a scilab, or something.  
 _"Get your lions uncrossed yet, Megaman?"_ Lan's voice came through ungarbled, at a higher volume, then.  
"Don't screw with my sound settings, Lan."  
 _"Is it louder, or something?"_  
"Very much more, yes." He wasn't keeping still, or anything, but moving fast down a network tunnel he'd rigged up between server sets in Dentek.  
 _"Not my doing, Megaman. Somebody's messing with the local net navi server formatting. We're in a lot of trouble if you don't jack out back where we jacked in, Megaman."_  
"That's pretty erroneous, Lan. Are you on your way home, yet?"  
 _"Just so, Megaman. I'll jack into my compy and you can jack out from the net from there."_  
"What's the algorithm set reading me like, anyway? What are you noticing?"  
 _"Megaman! I'm plugged into the tram's computer! Jack out there, NOW!"_  
Megaman didn't recognize how far he wasn't from the tram's server, since that's what he'd rigged this data tunnel to travel through, so he accessed the user input framing, and found the portal pad on a square he got warped to, right across the plane he was on, now.  
 _"Accessing chip folderescapechipNsent,nowGO MEGAMAN!"_  
The chip activated on its own, with Lan bypassing Megaman's delay and control algorithms, through synchro, and Megaman's boots blasted him forward with a jet of flames erupting beneath them, and he landed on the active jackout pad.  
The tram went dark and lurched to a stop, and Lan fell over, just after yanking his PET cable from the tram's jackin port, for Megaman's daring escape.  
The lights were all out, and they were trapped in a tram tunnel, not moving at all. "The net just shut down, Megaman."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

"This is a lot worse than I can figure on what to do about."  
 _"Lan, how long do you think it's going to take to get out of here, then? The tram car, I mean."_  
"We can't not back it up, or anything. That would be stupid."  
 _"When the power comes back on, even without the net online…"_  
"Hang on, that doesn't add up. The net's just all the computer systems operating on synchronized server sets."  
 _"Hypothetically, you mean."_  
"Realistically, Megaman. So for the net to actually be gone, which is what I saw happening…"  
 _"Something would have to be requisitioning those servers, or something. Turning them into something dedicated, and totally closed out to outside influence."_  
"How the hell is that even possible? Here, let's get the escape hatch open, Megaman."  
"Son is your PET still working? Mine's shut off, and I can't even get it to boot up, any longer. What were you doing in the tram's-"  
"I don't really have time to talk, sir." Lan had pulled the tram doors open, and was taking off back down the track, toward Dentek City.  
"Get your ass back here, right now!" the same guy shouted at him. "Just what the hell did you-" Lan put on a burst of speed, then jumped down a slope off the tram track and onto one of the sidewalks in Dentek City, where he could use the roller settings on his shoes.  
"The cars aren't running," Lan took witness.  
 _"This is a lot crazier than I can figure out, Lan. What do you suppose happened to all the net navis still on the net? And why would that guy's PET shut down like that?"_  
"Maybe he just sucks at charging the batteries."  
 _"Lan, when was the last time you remembered to plug in your PET?"_  
"Never?"  
 _"Try every time we jack online. I've been able to pretend that's a power download for like, ever, I'm pretty sure. It keeps the systems up and running, anyway. I'm not even sure if you have a battery pack in this thing."_  
"Good to not know about, I think. Blocking it out. Finished!"  
 _"Are you just gunna skate all the way to SciLab?"_  
"No, that'd be dumb. I'm a lot closer to ACDC anyway, and that's where dad will head, if he wants to grab a bike from work, and get home to use his private office."  
 _"Yeah, come to think on it, Doctor Hikari's lab is totally wired up, and not even the locks are… oh…"_  
"They'll lock down, not off, I think."  
 _"Plus their security guards aren't electronic."_  
"Just stupid."  
 _"So why… oh, okay, so you're sure Doctor Hikari will want his private office, because…"_  
"Because we broke all his clocks in it, remember?"  
 _"How would he know?"_  
"You can't reach anyone's phones?"  
 _"No, I haven't gotten through to anyone. I can't pick up any signals anywhere near us. Or at all, really."_  
"Mom's got an old fashioned landline phone, and that's where dad will call. She'd have checked the house when all the battery operated electronics went out, too."  
 _"So she'll be able to tell Doctor Hikari that his office computer still works, because we broke it last year."_  
"Hey _there_ you go, Megaman! You're forgetting how calendars work already! That was a long time ago by now, right? Like, at least three sunsets."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Megaman didn't have to ask Lan what his dad had meant, when he told Lan not to delay in finding his friend and pulling their net navis out of purgatory.  
"Lan! Oh my god, I'm freaking out right now!" Mayl wasn't handling anything poorly, or anything, but she was at Yai's, when Lan and Megaman found her. "Roll is safe on my PET but Glyde's gone and Yai can't get any of her devices to work right!"  
 _"Everything synched too closely with the net has been requisitioned by a virus, Mayl."_ Megaman supplied, while Lan was entering Yai's estate.  
"Did I hear you right, Megaman?" asked Yai, the young child prodigy and local aristocrat, apparently. "You're saying a virus took the whole _net_ down?"  
"How is that even possible, Lan?" asked Mayl.  
"I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but Megaman and I have been discovering a lot more corruption in the net than we thought could have existed. Have either of you ever heard of the undernet, before now?"  
"The undernet?" asked Yai and Mayl practically at the same time, in different tones. Mayl's said she'd never wanted to know more about anything, and Yai's said she thought Lan was super hot for knowing about the undernet, without her having to tell him anything, yet.  
"What do you know about it, Yai?"  
"You first, clock blocker."  
"It's probably the only area set in the net still operating, because its been so warped outside what's been acceptable or legal, Megaman and I never even had to touch it to make it completely unrequesitionable, in the same regards the other program sets were used for."  
"So what's the deal, then? Roll and Megaman are alright, but Dex lost Gutsman again, and he wasn't even jacked in when the net shut down." Mayl wasn't sure what Yai wanted to say, other than that she didn't seem to be missing Glyde, all that much.  
"Yai you're being strange, right now. What happened to Glyde? Why aren't you asking me about him?"  
 _"Glyde's not a friend of the family, Lan,"_ supplied Megaman. _"He's Yai's father's spy and snitch, so I doubt any of his program wasn't completely screwed over by that corruption requisitioning algorithm set, Lan and Mayl, right Yai?"_  
"Are you serious?" Lan wasn't super incredulous about it, but a little incredulous, at least.  
"More or less that's the truth about my dear little butler of a navi. Any chance you can give me a new one, Megaman?"  
"I've got just the girl for the job, Yai, and we don't even have to go to the undernet for it."  
"You've got a girl navi already made for me?" Yai wasn't even sure how to ask more about her.  
 _"She took an interest in one of your battle with Glyde, when you fucked up his reporting algorithms with a calculated chip set algorithm. Did you remember that standardized looking navi who gave Glyde a hard time for being such a peeon, right after he'd just apparently won through no fault of his own prowess as a network navigator and virus buster, but yours?"_  
"She's the one who really fucked up Glyde's programming, not me," defended Yai, "but yeah, I remember her. What…" she didn't really know what to say to get him to say more, about it.  
 _"Glydegirl isn't anyone but a carbon copy of that net navi, Yai. Know why I said that? Because I have no idea what you think carbon copy means, but I didn't start out as a fully customized navi before I had a real reason to turn into something else, forrit."_  
"You're telling me that a net navi found _me_ and now she wants to be my father's spy, instead?"  
 _"We're not going to be able to ignore the fact that Glyde wasn't going to be able to do anything but corrupt your other programs directly and ruin your life and livelihood, eventually, Yai."_  
"Megaman have you and Lan been spying on my father, or something?" Yai looked like she might not be so calm about it, in a moment's notice what forrit.  
 _"Not more than usual, anyway. He started accessing lots of web boards though, and posting misinformation about net navi functions, and making them all seem like Glyde at optimal settings; a useless android, or something."_  
"So what do you think they're going to do about the net, Lan? They can't just let it sit like it is. Do we have to build all new computers, or something?" Mayl wasn't one to be distracted by Yai's ill conceived curiosity about something she knew more about than she was saying out loud, anyway.  
Lan took over, then; "I don't think they're going to try to do anything but build some sort of false, glammed up, synchronized, bleached out version of the net, again. It's going to be ugly, and stupid to look at, but we'll be able to start using all the now isolated networks to build a smarter, better working network for anyone who wants to access it like they know what they're doing."  
It was Roll who spoke this time, from Mayl's pink and white PET, on her belt, presently. _"Megaman how can you know so much about the undernet without ever going there, anyway? You've never mentioned wanting to explore it before…"_  
"Roll you knew about the undernet too?" asked Mayl.  
 _"All network navigators should have heard one thing or another about different types of networks. I didn't know how to go there without screwing up my data, though. There's too many powerful virus sets, and deceptive data draining algorithms."_  
"Lots of chips from the undernet will reprogram your net navi to function exclusively form corrupted servers," said Lan.  
"So…" Mayl was getting the picture, it looked like. "What's your dad working on, right now?"  
"A new area for the Dentek villages called ACDC, so it can go global without people having to know where to jack in in the real world."  
 _"This real world, you mean. Yours. Mine's real too, and in a lot of danger now, I think, more than ever."_


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Megaman and Lan didn't really know what to do about school, and the news they kept hearing, on the crack down on net crime, like the incident that had caused the network failure.  
"It won't ever have to happen again, if we have our way about it," said their teacher, Miss Mari. "Who wants to know what a net battle actually is, so we know what to avoid, with the new laws, set in place?"  
"Miss Mari," said Lan, raising his hand. "What are-"  
"Wait until I call on you, Lan," said Miss Mari, then, "Mayl? Did you want to answer that one for us?"  
"Net battling is when you modify your network navigatorss virus busting protools to battle your net navi against another net navi, Miss Mari."  
"You can do that?" one of the boys wondered.  
"Is she serious?" asked another.  
"I wanna…" the other died off.  
"This is exactly the sort of thing that caused the network failure, you see," said Miss Mari.  
"That isn't true," said Lan, for Megaman's sake, who wasn't allowed to speak up in class, for some stupid reason.  
"What isn't true, Lan?" asked Miss Mari. "That netbattling is illegal, now? and if you all modded your net navis like you modded Megaman, back before this whole thing happened, and got caught net battling one another, like it was a _game_ or something, a game that made you a better virus buster, over all, you'd get caught by an official net battler and might have your net navi deleted, and have criminal charges pressed against you?"  
"Yeah, uh.. sorry, I guess you're right. That _would_ be a stupid to get caught doing," said Lan.  
"What do you mean, delete your navi, _then_ press criminal charges?"  
"Well as you well know, official netbattlers have been cleared by the state to delete other programs they see as interfering with the network, somehow."  
"Well now we're getting somewhere," said Yai. "It must have been all those net navi deleting virus busters we call official netbattlers who screwed up the net in the first place."  
"For everyone?" asked Lan, in Megaman's voice.  
"Everyone, Lan," said Miss Mari. "Just because you and your father have working computers, still, doesn't mean the problem didn't occur to everybody else still synched up with the official servers."  
"Are you, like… screwing with us, or something?" asked Dex, the oddball round kid who kept picking on Lan and hitting on Mayl. Lan was pretty sure he should pay more attention to Mayl, instead of him, if that's who he was _really_ interested in, anyway.  
"Did you have a question, Dex? Go ahead and raise your hand and I'll call on you."  
"Uh… nevermind, then," said Dex, taking the hint like a champion. Then, "hey! pssst… Lan!" he wasn't that far away from Lan's seat, so the whisper carried to him, easy enough. "Wanna have a netbattle after school? I only made up the part about modding your net navis."  
" _You_ told Miss Mari that?"  
"No, stupid, I told the other netbattlers on the messageboard that, and nobody seemed to think it was smart to correct me, so now that's what everybody thinks."  
Lan wanted to laugh so hard, right now. "You wanna battle without Gutsman, then?"  
"I _got_ Gutsman back, thanks. It's not too hard to figure out how to battle your-"  
"Dex," warned Miss Mari, "stop whispering sweet nothings to Lan and pay attention."  
The class laughed, then Dex defended; "I wasn't whispering sweet nothings to him, I was… I was telling him how bad I'm gunna…"  
"Wish he didn't think you were so mean so he'd come over to play, more often?" Mayl taunted. They laughed again, and Dex muttered something else and fell silent, for Miss Mari to resume classtime.  
"How'd you get your navi back, Dex?" asked Mayl, after class when the teacher had left them to it.  
"Gotta be honest with you, Mayl, I gots no idea how Gustman showed back up on my PET after Lan's dad fixed it for me."  
"He just, showed up?" Lan asked hm.  
 _"Quit the smalltalk, Lan, I'm bored and wanna kick Gutsman's sorry ass, now."_  
"Ever had a battle with another net navi before, Megaman?" asked Dex, pulling the cable loose on his old model PET, which was clunky, but easy to repair, as it turned out.  
"You guys are…" one of the kids had started to ask, but he kept his mouth shut.  
"Good question, smart one," said Dex, "Yes, we are about to engage in illegal video gaming. Anyone take care of Alu, yet?"  
Alu was the snitch. "Alu's not at school, today," said Mayl.  
"Okay nobody tell Alu that netbattling's illegal, now, and we might just pull one over on him. Somebody get him to do it, before he finds out," Dex was saying, "and he'll _never_ have the guys to rat us out for it."  
"Bye, guys!" Yai called back from the doorway. "I'm going to Alu's house to bring him his homework, or something!"  
"Miss Mari was already doing that!" Mayl called after her, laughing.  
'I said _or something_ Mayl, yeesh! Maybe he wants to braid my hair for me, or something!" She was gone, by then, and Lan and Dex had their PETs hooked up, already.  
"Battle routine set," said Lan, and Megaman said, _"Execute!"_

Megaman appeared on the arena generated by Lan's netbattling subroutine, which was global, by then, and had been since before the net had crashed. Gutsman was a hulking net navi, who looked like a construction android, instead of a slim, blue battle suited boy like Megaman was.  
"I'm gunna crush this little punk!" cried Gustman, taking in the sight of Megaman.  
 _"Don't go easy on him, Megaman!"_ Lan's voice came through.  
"You gunna give me a sword, this time?"  
 _"Jeez, you're never gunna let me live that one down, are you? Okay, fine, sword it is."_  
Megaman felt the new input data surge through him, and laughed out loud. "This, Lan.. is a mini bomb chip."  
 _"Oh.. that's weird. It's almost like bombs are your thing, or something."_  
"Guts, guts!" Gutsman slammed his hammer worthy fists into the panels Megaman had occupied just a moment before, and Megaman loosed the mini bomb in the other navi's face.  
 _"Nice shot, Megaman! Accessing folder1, moreover thereon intuit again, my level, your level, this one level set."_  
"More level set, access set," said Megaman, feeling their synchronization algorithms change and shift, accordingly.  
 _"Mini bomb C,L,L, transfer intuit, moreover level access , downloading…"_ Lan never stopped changing the phrasing he used to program chips into Megaman remotely, and Megaman hadn't known why, till just then, and he knew it would take _forever_ for anyone he was netbattling to learn the same programming languages.  
"Stop running around and fight me! Guts, guts!" He smashed and missed again.  
"I don't feel too inclined to acquiesce, Gutsman. Mega, mega!" he mocked, dodging another blow with a backward jump, pelting Gutsman with his minibombs, again.  
 _"Hey check that panel damage, Megaman. He's not really all that strong as he looks."_  
 _"He's plenty strong, Lan, just you wait and see! Get 'em, Gutsman!"_  
"You're right, Lan. Time to take a new tactic, I think." Megaman stayed where he was, this time, and Gutsman came charging at him, swinging wide, _way_ too wide for Megaman to knock parry his swing like it was easy, then close in and drive his fist into Gutsman's sternum.  
 _"Sword S downloading, activating!" Lan cried through.  
"Finally!" Megaman cried for it, and in between seconds, the sword arm formed, and he used his forward thrust momentum to slice clean through Gustman's midsection.  
GUTSMAN, LOGGING OUT set the computer's battle algorithms, as the other navi disappeared into a ruptured set of data cubes that dissipated in a second's time.  
"Did he just log out before I deleted his net navi?" asked Megaman. It was the smart thing to do, sure, but Dex wasn't ever great at the smart things, usually.  
"I think Gutsman's learning how to netbattle faster than his operator, Megaman," said Lan, and with Gutsman disconnected, Megaman's world shifted, changed, and he was back home in Lan's PET, so he got to work screwing with some language sets he'd been thinking about, while Miss Mari was talking to the class about the new net laws in place._


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Megaman couldn't really handle anything huge, apparently, or so he was showing up, lately. "Come on, Megaman. Are you serious? Why do you keep bustering everything, you're driving me nuts!"  
 _"I told you before, Lan, this whole this isn't going to go off without a hitch, and I don't want to use any old chip data I haven't already partitioned for; its like sending my whole system back in time, or something, it totally screws with all my new projects, you know?"_  
"You're saying that… hang on, Megaman, I gotta talk to this girl, really fast. Hey, Kari, do you wanna netbattle some time? You really shouldn't go virus busting on the net these days without some decent battle practice, you know?"  
She looked at him odd, like, she wanted to say yes, but… "Lan," she whispered, "what are you even talking about right now? I _can't_ netbattle you, I don't have any of the navi mods I need, and besides, we can't even talk about that stuff out loud any longer."  
Lan smiled at her, like, he really dug that she wanted to get caught doing this, or something, but totally didn't, of course. "Do you wanna have like, a code word for netbattling or something? I've got what your navi needs to battle, for."  
"Okay, seriously? I really wanted to… okay, sure. What do you want to call it? Like, it's got to be something, like, that we'd both totally be doing, that nobody would have to investigate, or like, try and join us, or something."  
"Uh, I got one, but, it's not like-"  
"Okay, what is it?"  
"Well hey, Kari, do you wanna _'have sex'_ with me, after school later?"  
She wanted to laugh like, really hard, when I revealed my netbattling codephrase. She giggled, though, over her hand, when she covered her mouth. "Oh my god… so you've like… you've got all the equipment we'd need, right?"  
"Oh, we don't really need any equipment just to, ' _have sex_ ', Kari, that was a myth Dex spread on the internet. Trust me, I'll show you what I mean."  
She looked at him like, this is pretty cool, and said, "Sure, okay. Sounds good. We'll have sex after school, right? And you'll bring what you need."  
"Sure enough and well, I will. Oh, and, uh, unrelated to that, here, these should help you get some virus busting done, later on, okay?"  
She looked at the battle chips he was offering, and said, "You're not setting me up, or something, are you? We didn't need anything, forrit?"  
"Oh battlechips? For navis, they're more like, what you already know how to do, you know? Skillsets, so that's totally applicable, I think, in our codephrase, turned metaphor…" I smiled, like, I don't really have to go to school, you know.  
"You know what? Why don't we just go netbattle at my house?"  
"I thought you said we shouldn-" Thank GOD, my PET blipped like, super loud, ONE time, and saved my life. "Yeah, sure! Let's totally go netbattle at your house!"


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Lan was hardly sure enough what to do about the substitute teacher at school, Mr. Higsby, because very time you asked him a question, or gave him a response, or breathed funny, he asked you, "Huh?" and with substitute teachers, Megaman's keep quiet rule was hard to enforce, but he couldn't really… figure how not to tell Higsby to shut up, more or less, so he kept quiet anyway, and Lan was more bored for it, because whenever the class seemed to be working, or talking quietly, and Megaman or Lan started talking about battlechips or virus busting or netbattling, Higsby's stupid afro thing would quake at his teacher's desk and he'd say, "Huh?"  
"Lan, what's the score with you anyway, huh?" he asked Lan, and he didn't know how to keep from kicking his shin, from out his desk.  
"What's your prerogative?"  
"Oh huh? Oh just, uh, tryin' to see what's always goin' on with you, huh? Got somethin' to say to me, huh?"  
 _"Mister Higsby, are you looking to pick a tussle, or something?"_  
"Huh? Ohizzat your netnavi?"  
"Uh, yes?"  
"Oh, hey, cool, man, go on, bring him on out!"  
"Uh, sure, hey, okay. His name's Megaman." He showed Mr. Higsby the screen of his PET, then slipped it back in his pocket really fast. "Sorry, not allowed to have them out in class, I forgot…"  
"Huh? Oh, sure as shoot, I guess you're right about that. Well how's about you and me have a… oh, you know what? Nevermind about that one, too, forrit. Go ahead and carry on, Lan, hang out with people." Higsby went back to his desk and Lan just, stared, for a second, before he went to talk to Mayl, who was working on some classwork with Yai, where some of the desks were pushed together, forrit.  
"What's up Lan?" asked Yai, before Mayl noticed him.  
"You wanna tell me why nobody's asked Mr. Higsby for a netbattle? That dude's a total net navi lunatic. He came over like he was looking for a fight, and Megaman spoke up for me, thank you, Megaman,"  
 _"Sure, Lan."_  
"and he just totally stepped off, like, Huh? Whaaat? Oh, cool, man, a net navi…"  
"Are you being totally serious right now?" Mayl was loving Lan's impression of Higsby, and for his making the teacher look not so bad, anymore.  
"You want me to challenge him after school, or some', hmm?" asked Dex, sort of, squinting his eyes like Mr. Higsby was doing a lot.  
"No bad impressions anymore, Dex, he's apparently a netbattler waiting to happen. Don't mock him until _after_ you mop the floor with him, alright?"  
"Maaan, alright… sounds fair."  
"Why would Mr. Higsby want to netbattle if you just have Dex and Gustman thrash him and his net navi, for?" asked Yai.  
"Cuz Dex doesn't thrash anyone in real life, Yai, on the real net, neither, so no worries, right, Dex and Mayl?"  
"Mayl?" asked Mayl.  
"What you don't want to netbattle the substitute teacher?"  
"Not a chance, Lan. No way I'm trying to look like the innocent honor student trying to sneak a netbattle conversation in with my teacher, no no, uh uh…" She actually wagged her finger at him.  
"What's an honor student?" asked Lan and Megaman both together.  
"Megaman's an honor student, Lan fucks honor students, and Dex doesn't know what they're doing, exactly…" said Yai.  
"Wait, sorry, fucks honor students plural?" asked Mayl. "Who…" she dropped her voice, "whooo, have you been fucking, Lan Hikari?"  
"Are you crazy? No one! You're insane, Mayl. Megaman and I don't even know what sex _is_ , Mayl and Yai both of you…"  
Mayl looked at Yai, incredulous. "What?!" she hissed, not mad, but scandalized.  
Yai almost burst apart. "I _never_ did it, Mayl! He's totally playing you for a fool."  
"Yai are you serious?" asked Lan, like, earnestly, right? "You deny our love? After all we've been to each other…"  
"Oh my god, you're such an animal!" Yai laughed, blushing like crazy, keeping her voice and face low, forrit.  
"Oh my god Lan stoppit," Mayl wanted to laugh harder, "Okay," she slapped his arm, anyway, "I give, you can fuck who you want, just don't spread rumours about Yai having love affairs."  
"Not that you'd have minded, Mayl, but, OUCH, bitch friend, on the hunt for indiscriminate character defaming. Why shouldn't Yai have a love affair rumor? I'll bet she'd go for a guy named Cloud, or something, right?"  
"Oh Lan," said Yai, "such a card. Well now, fellows and boys, I'll be going then, to turn in this assignment, and then _never speak to any of you ever again!_ " she hissed the last part, what for, and took her worksheet up to the desk.  
"Lan did you want to copy my assignment?" Mayl seemingly died, and made the offer, what for.  
"Uh, are you… gunna let me do that?"  
"Not even slightly, I'm just wondering why you're not back at your desk with Megaman, working on it."  
"Because Megaman likes girls better than homework papers, Mayl, everybody knows that."  
 _"That's not untrue, Mayl. I do like girls better than homework paper, specifically, and maybe more broadly homework in general."_  
"You see, Mayl? He can't be quenched. We have to adventure spontaneously, and without reservation, or lack of love for totally ditching that desk, back there, now that I'm best friends with, huh? oh, nevermind, carry on. Aaany,way, I'm gunna go make sure Megaman gets to talk to enough girls, today." So Lan departed, and went _straight_ to Kari's table group, just to say hi, right? Sure and pass her the Higsby loves net talk intel, what for.  
The firealarm rang out, and Lan didn't know what it was even there for. They didn't have drills, at his school, but Mayl looked alarmed, and Dex looked pissed off, for like, a second, then he thought the noise was kinda hardcore, so he started banging his head to the rhythm, forrit.  
"Lan, where did Mr. Higsby go?" asked Mayl, hurrying up to where he was, by the tarantula cage. "Damnit, Lan, did you kill the spiders again?"  
"What? No, they were like that when I got over here. No, where did you think he'd go? Maybe… what is this, evacuate or stay indoors?"  
"I can't open the doors!" one of the girls was crying out, from over there.  
"Let Dex try it!" Lan called over, touching Mayl's arm and holding her by the elbow, for a second, while he looked over there, then looking back, and saying, "I'll jack in to the whiteboard, and see if I can talk to the programs in there and see what's up, okay?"  
Dex beat him to it, irritatingly enough. He took up a wide berth and moved around a lot, so Lan didn't want to use the other jack-in port beside him, oddly enough, because Dex was notorious for slapping out the cables by accident.  
"You got this, Gustman!" Dex cried into his PET, thrusting a few power enhancing chips into his terminal, and Lan was pretty sure that was all he ever carried, next to healing chips….  
"Lan do you have any healing chips? Gustman's going to get his ass kicked, in a second or so. None of Roll's stuff is compatible with his, anyway."  
"Not really, some recover tens, maybe, but Megaman keeps dumping our cache, so…"  
 _"We've never HAD more potent healing chips, Lan!"_  
"What he said then, probably," Lan corrected, apparently.  
"Here then, take this, and use it smart, okay? Roll will dash in and drain something, then replenish some of Megaman's HP, before she fades out entirely, alright? The quicker you use her after you've already recovered, and it's R code, so that shouldn't be any trouble, the faster you should be able to sync up with better versions of Roll's chip, later on, okay? I've never really done something like this before, but Megaman and Roll have synced up on the net so much more, lately, it seemed like something I could use, you know?" She was giving him a pink and green battlechip, which looked freaking awesome, by the way, the whole chipset was custom colored and girly, forrit.  
"This is awesome, Mayl, thanks! How cool is this, Megaman? Roll gets to join us in battle, every once in a while…"  
 _"Game set and match, Megaman,"_ said Megaman to his operator. Dex cried out in defeat as his net navi was deleted by viruses, in the school's computer mainframe.  
"We're up, Megaman," said Lan. "Ready for action?" Dex was stepping aside, solemn, and feeling stupid. "Alright, Jack-in, Megaman EXE, transmit!"


End file.
